do helplines really help?

Hi @Former-Member,

I really don't find the helplines helpful at all. If you search the forums for "bad experience with lifeline" you will find that it was a particular experience with lifeline that motivated me to take the plunge and engage here on the forums.

To me, "call lifeline" is just one of the lines that everyone says for the sake of saying SOMETHING. Call lifeline, call 000, go to your local hospital. I don't find any of those suggestions helpful at all and I have a feeling that the people who say those things are usually well aware of how unhelpful they are...they just need to say something.

The SANE forums are the single most useful source of support I've found in my twenty years of dealing with my muddle, and I am so very grateful that I found my way here.

Hi, I rang lifeline once many years ago and would never do it again... the woman told me to "go out and have a good time"... yeah real helpful, thanks for that. Some people seem to have had positive experiences so it must be very dependent on the person who answers the phone. I'm sure some operators are better than others - just the luck of the draw I guess.

Hi @Former-Member - yes my favourite too "If you don't feel safe go to the Emergency department"... So do I walk in amongst the car accidents, heart attacks and stabbings and say "excuse me - I don't feel safe". Yes I'm sure they'll appreciate having someone else to triage. I understand that helpline operators are volunteers but I really wonder how much training and real life experience they have. I've also been threatened with having the catt team sent around to my home to "deal with the situation". I don't appreciate being spoken to like that when there is already a stressful circumstance. I think maybe I've just had bad experiences that have soured my opinion.

I don't know what's worse Dugga,I had a policeman come to my house in a pig attitude treating me like a criminal because the mental health nurse thought I was going to take my life after I texted him and told him I didn't want to see him again after a doctor read out what he wrote about me that I heard two times before from different doctors that "I lacked intimate relationships". Great help to embarrass and humiliate the crap out of the client.lol.The cop was a absolute untrained *****.I had just brought the paper and he sat in his car watching me as I unloaded my groceries.They obviously thought I was going to read the paper,have a feed then take my life lol.Then when they left had two paramedics knocking on my door to resuscitate me.What a waste of resources.Then I gave up on getting "help",and it isolated me.Yes now I'm at the end where I feel done and know my problems are beyond antidepressants or crap therapy with me helping someone's ego.Its like the doctor weeks ago giving me a talk on "being happy".Great help👎. Basically if you can't fix the problems in your life ,no one can help you.

thank you for your resposnes everyone @Phoenix_Rising@Former-Member@Former-Member

I think being on here is more beneficial then ringing a helpline most of the time to Phoenix_ Rising. I find people are good at distracting me better than a helpline saying speak to your psychologist.
I know that I need to have my psychologist to talk to but such as now I wont have one for a few weeks until I fill in other paper work and apply for another scheme to go through another psych and if it doesnt get approved then I still have to wait to find another one now, so sometimes its not just as simple as go and see your psych about it.
If my methods were working then I wouldnt have rung to get extra help. I try to use the coping strategies I have before I ring them unless im at a complete loss of what to do and just need to get advice and chat it out to help clear my head.

Wow- I havent heard that one before Dugga- thats just gone to a lower level, yep casue someone whose dealing with anxiety or depression and just get up and have fun like what the heck!

LI1 yes a lot of people just say call 000 or ring lifeleine or got to the ED. A hospital is a very big trigger for me so that is a very very last resort like sedated and taken there cause not a chance ill go there unless absolute necessary
sending a catt team to me wouldnt be helpful either, it would actually make me a lot more distressed as my family doesnt know I suffer from ahlf the things I do and when I did tell them they werent supportive so ive been hiding it so I really dont like that option

OMG Li1 thats just so wrong on so many levels! That was a total waste of services! The police should have bloody checked on you at least not just watched and if your were ok

oh god if it was as simple as just getting over it and getting on with being happy I think people would already be doing it, but its just not that simple!

Yes the talk on being happy wasn't help a few weeks ago lil-caterpillar.He meant well but didn't listen when I said I have finished with therapy.Seen the psychologist in January and a doctor there who accused me of "doctor shopping".I don't do this,this psychologist I traveled a hour and a half for and I went to the doctor there because I was ashamed to talk to one here and the stigma surrounding me I value my privacy.I told the doctor I didn't want any more therapy then he shoved the mental health plan under my nose to sign.I hesitated signing it.He gave me a talk on happiness ,to me no different then if he sat me down to watch an episode of playschool lol.The thing was I went out that door distressed, embarrassed in front of a waiting room of people,felt 10x more vulnerable and at loss with myself.This is how many counseling sessions made me feel,all I get out of it is a red nose from them passing me tissues and feeling more lost.

I thought this was a joke thread....I have called these lines when I was REALLY desperate and either could not get anyone or something like rock up to your A&E.....i mean REALLY!!! Going to the A&E as a MH patient is an invitation to humiliate oneself by walking in to the pit of HELL, because nurses and allied staff HATE MH patients...believing them tobe a total waste of oxygen and time. If there is a PYSCH A&E it just gets better....the MH STAFF look at you through a window (like at the ZOO) and you are told if you dont stop shreading the ancient magazines ( because heck...,.I dont know.....a really STRESSED person here!) you will be chucked out. The cops came in with a very violent person and we the MH folk got to see him physically restrained and chemically assaulted.Gorgeous....I think I fugued out about then, I dont recall what happened after.

Sorry about the rant...but I am phobic about life lines and advice about going to A&E.

I don't know what I'm going to do with myself lil-caterpillar,I have struggled with this for so long ,the past three weeks I am struggling more than ever,had family issues,and the death of someone last week I fell out with last year and I regret not making amens with.I just woke up and there is a emptiness and distress there.I said on another thread I have been walking a lot the past week or so just to keep me alive.Im concerned because I no longer have any faith in anyone,and know no one can help me.I can't see a future and in all honesty,feel I have used up my lifelines. Getting help in some ways did more harm,your life is a open book and you are so vulnerable and so humiliated.Thats not help.